The invention relates generally to apparatus for counting sheet material such as paper currency, and more specifically to microprocessor controlled apparatus therefor.
Cash counting machines are used in banks and other financial institutions to perform a number of vital functions, most notably to count the number of bills in a stack. It is desirable not only to have the machines keep a running total of the number of bills in a stack, but also to count out a selected numbers of bills so that an operator may easily form stacks of either a preselected number of bills or of selected amount of money. Furthermore, in some countries, bills of different denominations have different lengths, and it is desirable to have the currency counter sense the different denominations and therefrom maintain running totals of the amount of money being counted.
The instant invention provides a microprocessor controlled currency counting apparatus including a conventional cash feeding mechanism including an input hopper, a toothed rotatable wheel and an output tray. The wheel is rotated by a motor and clutch arrangement under control of the microprocessor. Sheets or bills from the input hopper are individually fed to the wheel and caught between the teeth and deposited in the output hopper as the wheel is rotated.
The operations of the invention depend on which of several operating modes it is engaged in. In a batch mode, the invention transfers selected numbers of bills from the input hopper to the output tray for removal by an opeator. In a count mode, it transfers all of the bills from the input hopper to the output hopper and maintains a running total of the number of bills transferred by incrementing a counter after each bill is transferred.
The apparatus has optical sensors which perform several functions. In the output path from the input hopper, an optical sensor senses each bill passing over it to the wheel. The microprocessor determines the amount of time required for the bill to pass over it and, in response thereto, determines whether the bill is shorter or longer than a standard bill, which can assist in detecting counterfeit currency. This sensor also is useful in determining when the input hopper is empty and in detecting the value of a bill when used to count currency whose denominations are represented by bills of various sizes.
Other sensors in the feeding mechanism determines whether the output tray is empty, or whether an error has occurred, which occurs if the machine tries to feed a half bill, a folded bill, or two bills at one time, or if the feeding is jammed.
The machine includes a display which identifies the status of the machine, and also identifies the total amount of money in each stack transferred from the input hopper to the output tray, and also a running total of the value of money that has been fed through the machine.